Friday, March 09, 2012

I admire the professionalism of the personnel and the high living standards to which I am treated, and not because I am royalty or especially entitled. I'm just another paying customer taking care of business.

Glenn and I parted, talking global climate change and solar flares, as I boarded the 75 at Chavez & Hawthorne for Hollywood Transit Center and thence to the airport. However, having watched eXistenZ again (movie night) I had lost a battle with my cell phone charger (I no longer saw it as being the right one) and left the Blue House with a dead Droid.

So instead of riding to the airport I jumped off in this new Mall City for some low density strategic shopping, Rev. Billy a role model, like when he buys that sweater, suits him. No crushing through the doors in a panic for some stupid "deal".

I picked up a high zoom high megapixel camera, more later, and a new charger with built in buffer / battery for the Droid. Got back on the next Max and resumed the trip.

I worked through a lot of my queue in Sacramento but still have a ways to go tonight. I wanted to meet some of the Python MVPs, both on the ground floor and in Steve's suite. I was not disappointed.

All in all, I have nothing to complain about at the moment. As I reminisced with Steve, even though I've traveled a lot, it was under the aegis of my parents, my dad the trip planner in particular, and he was quite the smooth operator. I was openly critical, but also admiring. He knew his stuff. We were the people to share it with him.

I feel I'm more disorganized and hit the TSA station like a cloud of loosely connected particles. This guy came up to me with my postage stamps that had dropped. I'd leaked coins as well. A team helps me win. Alaska Airlines still gives complementary wine on these short hops. A high culture.

What do Pythonistas talk about at gatherings such as this, informally? Just like everyone, we compare notes about life's journey and children are a big part of that. We talk a lot about children, about parenting.

Not that I talk all that much. I toted Naga this whole way, our PSF totem. I have this newly embossed bag, done in Florida, with the stuffed / toy python inside. Quite light and airy. I also checked one bag for $20, well worth doing. Again, the service has been excellent. Alaska Airlines, the various airports, the drivers, the people helping me at the Verizon (charger) and Best Buy (camera).

My blog post on Pycon for the O'Reilly site is worth a link here. Grandma and Grandpa O'Reilley would be amused and I think happy enough with this new incarnation. The potato famine came up recently, where was that? Tom's relatives came over as a result of that, or so goes the family story.

I brought (Over)interpreting Wittgenstein again, like on the trip to Philadelphia. This book might actually pass for an anthropology of philosophy in some ways, and when I encountered has passages paying respect to Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist, I felt some happiness. Wittgenstein and Geertz were both my heroes but I'd either forgotten or never known how much Geertz in turn admired Wittgenstein, took his thinking to heart in crafting his own style of rendering "thick description".